Jaguar men reject 21 per cent pay offer

Jaguar men reject 21 pc pay offer
By John Ardill, Labour Correspondent

Jaguar car workers yesterday backed their shop stewards recommendation to reject the company's offer of a 21 per cent pay rise over two years. Negotiations are to resume next week on their demand for a £25-a-week increase. There were overwhelming votes against the offer at separate mass meetings at the Browns Lane assembly plant and Radford engine plant in Coventry and the Castle Bromwich body plant in Birmingham.

Mr Bob Ainsworth, secretary of the joint shop stewards committee at Browns Lane, said the workers felt that theyhad been largely instrumental in creating Jaguar's new wealth and it was time their efforts were rewarded. "The present offer is only worth about 7 per cent in terms of new money and that is just not enough," he added.

The company, newly privatised, had a £40 million operating surplus in the first six months of the year after a £55 million profit last year. A spokesman said yesterday: "We believe that this was a generous and sensible offer with achievable objectives, which would have maintained Jaguar's position as the best paid workforce in the British motor industry."